In His Defence
by Si1verwing
Summary: Gina thinks her mentor is awesome–but not everybody else agrees. When Jonah Parker, a jerk in her year, calls Plastic Man a joke, they get into a fight and wind up being sent to the office so the principal can talk to them and their parents…one of which happens to secretly be Plastic Man himself.


Regina Connolly and Jonah Parker were waiting in the main office of their school, Jonah sporting a busted lip and a torn shirt, Gina's legs and arms tightly crossed, both of them glaring daggers in opposite directions. They were waiting for their parents to arrive so that the four of them could enter the principal's office and discuss the reason they were there; that Gina and Jonah had been caught in a fist fight while changing periods.

When her father and his mother entered the office, Gina's eyes met her dad's and her expression immediately changed from one of anger to one of slightly less anger, mixed with some guilt and sadness. Guilt for punching the kid, sadness and anger for the reason she'd done it.

The coordinator pushed a button on the intercom. 'Principal Carter, Mr. O'Brian and Mrs. Parker are here to discuss today's little incident,' she said. They heard a static-y reply, and the coordinator pointed to her left at a door with a plaque reading 'Principal's Office' on it. 'Go right in,' she said.

The four entered the room and saw the principal sitting at her desk opposite four chairs, which she gestured for them to sit down in. Once they had sat down (Gina and Jonah still refusing to look at each other), Carter spoke.

'As I explained to both of you over the phone,' she said, looking from Mr. O'Brian to Mrs. Parker, 'we're here because Jonah and Regina were caught having a physical fight in the hallways between classes. This is a chance to hear both sides of the story.'

'Well all _I_ did was make fun of some lame superhero and she just went completely _nuts_ on me,' Jonah said loudly.

'That is _so_ not how it happened!' Gina snapped. 'You sh—'

'Stop it, both of you,' Carter said, holding up her hands to quiet the two teenagers. 'You'll both get a chance to tell us your perspective, but nothing will get resolved if you're both shouting at each other. Gina?'

'You shoved me _first_!' she finished. She glanced at Carter, and when the latter nodded in encouragement, kept going. 'You were bad-mouthing a member of the _Justice League_ , whom they _chose_ , and so I told you to keep your fat mouth _shut_ , and you told me to make you, and then you shoved me. _Then_ I busted your lip.'

Carter looked from Gina to Jonah. 'Is this true?' she asked.

'Ugh,' he said. 'Okay, fine, I _did_ push her first, but only because she threatened me and was getting all angry over nothing! Who cares what "Leaguer"'—he drew air quotes around the word—'I was talking about—'

'I do!' Gina said fiercely. 'And don't you air quote him as if he's not a "real Leaguer" or whatever—!'

'Who _is_ this Leaguer that the both of you are so adamant about?' Carter asked—it shouldn't matter, but curiosity had gotten the better of her.

'Plastic Man,' both of them said at once—Gina's voice full of emotion, Jonah's full of disdain. Gina glanced for a split second at her father; he had raised his eyebrows slightly, but was otherwise keeping his face determinedly straight.

'Okay,' Carter said. 'You said before that you told Jonah to stop talking about Plastic Man that way, and then he shoved you. But you, Jonah, say that she threatened you. What precisely did you two say to each other?'

'She told me to keep my big fat mouth shut before she shut it for me,' Jonah said. 'Then, okay, _yes_ , I told her to make me and pushed her—but she started it! _And_ threw the first real punch!'

'But you were the first one to touch her,' Carter said.

Jonah let out a huff of air. 'Yes...' he said.

'Okay,' said Carter. 'Gina, you fully admitted to punching him in the mouth. He is obviously injured, but you...I don't see a single bruise or scratch on you. Was he even fighting back? Or was he telling you to stop?'

'No,' Gina said. ' _Both_ of us were fighting.'

'Then why do you still look normal?'

'Uhm...' Gina couldn't tell her the real reason—being effectively made of rubber meant no bruising and no broken bones, and an accelerated healing factor made for quick repair of minor scrapes and scratches—looking down at her knuckles, she could no longer see where she had skinned them against Jonah's teeth. 'I'm...really good at dodging,' she decided on eventually.

' _No_ way, I got you, at _least_ once, straight to the jaw!' Jonah said. Gina couldn't help but laugh.

'Is that really something you wanna admit to, right here, right now?' she asked, and his face hardened a bit as he realised what he'd said. She laughed again. 'See I still didn't manage to knock some sense into you...'

'I still haven't changed my mind!' Jonah snapped. 'Plastic Man is a joke, an _embarrassment_ , he hardly does anything _useful_ —'

'Boy, if you don't—!' Gina began angrily, but Carter cut her off.

'Gina, Gina,' she said, 'why is this so important?'

'Because Plas always gets so much flack about how he's just silly and useless, when in reality, he's the exact _opposite_ ,' Gina replied. 'He _is_ a superhero, he _saves_ people! He can turn himself or any part of his body into _anything he needs_. He can become a trampoline to catch a falling civilian, he can turn his fist into a hammer to knock out a villain, he can become a parachute, pick a lock, slip under a door, stop _bullets_ , anything!' she rattled off, an avid smile lighting up her face.

'He's also a _reformed criminal_ ,' she continued. 'Do you have any idea what that means? What do you think that says to other criminals out there looking to turn over a new leaf? He was part of the gang life as a _kid_ , doing it to _survive_ —and then he got his powers. And he saw it as his chance to do some _good_ in the world. He saw his opportunity to change, to become a good person, a _hero_ , and he _seized it_.' She clenched her fist. 'He came from _nothin'_ and he turned himself into _somethin'_. He shows all the rest of us that came from nothin' too that no matter what happened to you in your past, no matter what you were born into, or jumped into, or fell into, you can _still_ become something _remarkable_.

'And as for the goofiness? That's to show people being a hero can be _fun_ , that it's not always depressing and full of angst and pain and vengeance, that you _can_ do it because you want to, not just because you feel you _have_ to, that unlike how Batman seems to act, heroism isn't always a _curse_.'

The smile faded from her face. 'So you see?' she said, turning back to Jonah. 'You know _nothing_ about Plastic Man. You know _nothing_ about the things you are saying.'

'And you do?' Jonah said sceptically, smirking. 'How do _you_ know all this stuff about Plastic Man?'

Gina's fists clenched slightly. She would have loved to tell him, 'Because I grew up with him.' She would have loved to tell anybody and everybody who would listen that _she_ was Recoil, Plastic Man's protégée, his sidekick, and his daughter. And she would have _especially_ loved to tell him that Plastic Man himself was sitting in that very room and that Jonah had been talking smack about him right to his face. But she could not, because then their secret identities would disappear.

'Let's just say I'm a really big fan,' Gina said instead. 'But most of that stuff I said was publicly known.'

'Well, Gina, it's obvious this is very important to you,' Principal Carter said. 'However, that doesn't change the fact that fighting is against school rules. Since you both were actively engaged in the fight, you will both receive suspensions for the rest of today and tomorrow, with a detention upon your return. You are dismissed.'

'Will this affect my places on the track and basketball teams?' Gina asked.

'Does this mean I have to drop out of the running for student council?' Jonah asked.

'I think not,' Carter said. 'This a first-time offence for both of you. But I warn you not to do this again. Perhaps talk about something other than superheroes?'

Gina gave a half-hearted smile as she and Jonah picked up their backpacks and left the office with their parents. She and her father had gotten into their car before Gina spoke.

'Look, I'm sorry I punched the twerp,' she said, avoiding eye contact. 'It just...it made me really angry, what he was saying. Because, you know, you're really awesome...and I wish everybody could realise that.'

'I know,' said Plas. 'I understand...but that still doesn't mean you're off the hook. You're grounded for the rest of the week, got it?'

Gina sighed. 'That's fair,' she said.

'And Gina?' Plas said, his tone slightly softer.

'Yeah?' she said, turning to look at him.

He smiled. 'Thank you,' he said.

Gina smiled back at him. 'You're welcome,' she said.


End file.
